The Sights and Smells of New Haven Part 1

Hello from Connecticut! This past week has been so full of fun and food and time with loved ones I haven’t had a chance to update you guys about it! I hope you all had a very Happy New Year and that 2012 is starting off great for you! Since we last spoke I travelled to Harrisburg, PA to catch an Amtrak train to Philadelphia, where I took another train that took me to New Haven. It was a fun day of trains that invovled me getting to try Cosi for the first time at the Philadelphia train station. And the best part was that after all the train rides and travelling I got to see Josh and his wonderful family! They were so sweet to take me for dinner at the place where they take Josh every time he travels home. Josh has talked so highly of this place and I was super excited to get to try it!

The restaurant is called Delaney’s and it was such a cute little place.

We started off with spinach artichoke dip to share and it was incredible. Josh and I scraped the bowl clean.

Delaney’s is known for their burgers. I was so excited and ordered a guiness battered veggie burer with sweet potato fries. It was delicious and I ate every bite.

After dinner we headed back to Josh’s parents house where we exchanged holiday gifts. Josh and his parents have this wonderful tradition wherethey put all their presents in huge stockings each year and take turns each unwrapping a present until the stockings are empty. They were so incredibly sweet and included me in that tradition this year. They were so incredibly generous and I love each and every thing I got.

After a good nights sleep we all headed out to Bruegger’s Bagels for breakfast. This is another place Josh has been raving about, and since we don’t have any by us I was so excited to get to try them. The bagels are made fresh on site and there are so many breakfast options!

I got a egg, cheese, and veggie melt on a whole wheat bagel.  It was out of this world.

Brueggers was also attached to a Jamba Juice. I had a Jamba Juice almost every day for breakfast when I was interning in Hawaii and I was so excited for the opportnity to get to enjoy another one. They recently launched an all fruit line of smoothies, so I decided to try out the five fruit smoothie. It was so so good.

Later that night Josh’s mom Debbie, her close friend Robin, and I went out for a girl’s night at a Thai restaurant  called Bangkok Gardens in downtown New Haven. We started off with veggie egg rolls and fried tofu for appetizers. The peanut dipping sauce was so good.

For dinner I ordered (suprise, surprise) tofu pad thai. I really need to start branching out in my Thai dishes but why mess with perfection, right? The meal was so good and what was even better is the company. Josh is so lucky to have so many close family friends in his life and they are all so wonderful and so welcoming towards me. After dinner we walked around downtown and explored some bookstores and coffee shops. It was a blast.

The next day Josh, his mom, and I headed off to one of my favorite stores to pick up some goodies for New Years. I LOVE Whole Foods, but sadly don’t have access to one in State College. Walking the aisles and browsing the products was so fun, and their cheese section had me drooling.

After a day of grocery shopping and prepping for our New Year’s party we headed to a local favorite for dinner, Manjares. Last time I was in New Haven I ate there for breakfast and absolutely loved it. This time we decided to head there for tapas. I was so excited! Josh started off dinner with a delicious Tempranillo from Paso a Paso vineyard. 

Debbie at dinner! 🙂

We ordered a lot of different dishes so we could sample them all. After a day of  shopping we were also pretty hungry! They served the food in courses which was really nice. To start we had the spinach empanadas, crispy roasted potatoes (patatas bravas), and some home baked bread.

Next came chickpeas sauteed with onions and spices (garbanzos criollos ).

Then we had roasted vegetable skewers (pintxos vegetarianos). They were so good.

We finished up with a plate of Spanish cheeses. There was actually another cheese plate as well but I was too busy eating to remember to snap a picture. Suffice it to say there were lots of yummy cheeses going on! 😀 I loved all of them.

The dish I was most excited about was dessert! Josh had tried their tres lecheslast time he was here with his mom and had raved about how delicious it was. I had never tried it and couldn’t wait to find out what it tasted like. Its as good as it looks, creamy, tasty, and oh so filling. Like a moist pound cake with strawberries!

After a delicious dessert we sat around talking over lattes. It was frothy and super yummy and was the perfect way to end the evening.

The next night was New Years! Josh’s parent’s good friends Mary and Joey were coming over to help us celebrate and ring in the New Year so we got to work early setting up for the party. Debbie had such cute party decorations!

And the mantle was decorated gorgeously! Last time I was here it was decorated for fall and now its in all its winter glory. I can’t wait to have a mantle to decorate.

We set appetizers out in the living room where we ate and talked and played card games until midnight. Josh’s family always plays games the women vs the men and I love it, it gets so competitive! And I’m very proud to say the women kicked butt! 😀

For dinner Josh’s mom made an amazing pecan, feta, and cranberry salad. I can’t get enough of this salad combo.

Along with her famous baked ziti. It was so good!

As midnight neared we put down our cards and food plates to watch the ball drop on TV, make lots of noise with noisemakers, and give kisses and hugs as Auld Lang Sne played. Here’s Josh being adorable with the noisemakers! 😀

John, Debbie, Mary, and Joey. They’ve been celebrating New Years together for almost 20 years!

And Josh and I! Our second New Years as a couple, and our first celebrated together! 🙂 It was the perfect way to ring in a new year. Happy 2012 everyone! After celebrating we went and stuffed ourselves with Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and hung out until 3am. The rest of the week has been just as busy but that will have to wait until another post. There’s still lots more to enjoy before heading back to Pennsylvania this Sunday. I’ll probably be posting my second update of my time here in Connecticut this Monday or Tuesday. Thanks for hanging in there with me through a week of no updates and sporatic Twitter updates. I’m still here, just enjoying my holiday! 🙂

Question of the Day: How was your New Years? What did you do to celebrate?